Highland planning blog

It brings me pleasure to serve in the role of Street Liaison for the City of Rochester, because the position merges my background in Sales and Marketing with my love of city living. Before taking a job with Highland Planning, I spent eight years working for Automatic Data Processing (ADP) in New York, Cleveland, and then Rochester. Fresh out of college, my sales territory was the Garment District in New York and I soon grew to love the stories that unfolded as I spent my days foot canvassing. And, yes, sweat shops did exist.

Building relationships is my passion, and for the past five years, I have been walking the commercial corridors in the southeast and northwest quadrants of Rochester. Each time I embark on a new area, I am fascinated by the entrepreneurs I meet and their passion for the businesses that they run. There are so many interesting stories within each storefront, and it brings me joy to discover each one.

I focus on informing businesses about the financial assistance programs that the City has to offer and I work with business associations to attract people to their commercial districts. Our goal is to spur investment through grant and loans. Through my work on Show on Monroe, South Clinton Goes Batty and Springtime on Dewey, I have helped to plan events that showcase these vibrant avenues. I also help to organize Clean Sweep, advertising campaigns and small business promotions.

Ultimately, I hope that my work will improve the commercial corridors, occupy all the storefronts, and help businesses thrive. When it is all said and done, I want to have a positive impact on my city.

In 2016, Rochester received a Rose Fellowship, a year-long study to help cities develop and advance land use policies that will stimulate creative, efficient, practical and sustainable policies to support the redevelopment of downtown. The fellowship included data, best practices, a peer network and other resources to the City over the course of the year. The project manager for Rochester's Fellowship was Kevin Kelley, senior community housing planner in the City's Department of Neighborhood and Business Development. Kevin is a friend, neighbor and old planning colleague.

Over the last year, Kevin attended two working retreats at the NLC Congress of Cities, went to the ULI Spring Meeting, conducted a study tour of another city, and hosted a team of experts who came to Rochester on a study visits. The outcome of the year long fellowship was a set of recommendations.

​One of the recommendations was to use programming to generate foot traffic and establish awareness to Main Street. Other recommendations included using pop-up retail and art, and partnering with existing groups to support programming. The re:Main Social is the outcome of that recommendation. Led by the RocCity Coalition in strong partnership with the City and several community development organizations, the re:Main Social will take place on Saturday, October 1st in front of The Metropolitan (former Chase Tower) at Main and Clinton.

The event will be a celebration of all the recent development on Main Street as well as the what’s on the horizon for the continued resurgence of Center City. Featuring food trucks, buskers, dancers, a downtown project showcase, street art, a beer garden, live DJs, and a high-powered image projection of past/present/future Main Street, this will be a one-of-a-kind event.

Check out the Facebook Event page for more details. And be on the look out for our M. Andre Primus, who helped to organize the event, will be performing with his dance company *and* will be staffing the table regarding the Genesee Crossroads Park redesign.

We are proud of Kevin and his partners for implementing one of the Rose Fellowship recommendations so quickly. And we are looking forward to seeing more developments in downtown in the coming months.

We recently were talking about how our work to revitalize commercial corridors involves hundreds of people. This month we decided to highlight three of our business owners and volunteers, who are helping us improve our cities. We are luck to know these dedicated, creative, optimistic, and community-minded people through our work in the City of Rochester. It was hard to pick three, but maybe we'll make this a frequent post.Kelly Bush, Marshall Street Bar and Grill

Kelly has become an active member in the Monroe Avenue Merchants Association (MAMA) and the Show on Monroe Planning Committee. She hosts our monthly MAMA meetings, and has helped us make our annual event highlighting Monroe Avenue better each year. She has a great vision for her business, and has devoted many hours to making the avenue more successful.

Kelly even comes to our events on South Clinton. Here she is with Nancy the minion at South Clinton Goes Batty.

Sarah Farmer, Wedge 23 LLC

Sarah is the owner of Wedge 23 LLC and the President of the South Clinton Merchants Association (SCMA). She started as Treasurer a few years ago, and quickly increased memberships and flower pot subscriptions. We use Sarah's gator and sometimes her staff to help plant the planters up and down the avenue every spring. A few years ago, Sarah accepted the nomination to become President of SCMA. Her innovative ideas for marketing have brought awareness to South Clinton Avenue at exactly the right time. She and Wedge 23 LLC are dedicated to the prosperity of the corridor, and we're all reaping the benefits of her good work.

​Kim has been instrumental in the recent formation of the Dewey/Driving Park Merchants Association. She has taken on the task of helping the group to incorporate, an accomplishment that will create future opportunities for the organization. While busy running her own business, Liberty Tax, she displays dedication to making the community around her business prosper.

When you live in Western NY, you need reasons to congregate in the winter. It's gray, it's cold, it's depressing. And you don't run into anyone unless you are deliberate about it. Highland Planning hosted a long overdue celebration last Thursday for a few reasons. We wanted to:

(a) Mark the completion of the redevelopment of 820 South Clinton Avenue (b) Invite everyone to check out our (not so new) office (c) Introduce our new staff to everyone (d) Thank our clients, colleagues and partners for being awesome (e) Forget about winter for a minute

The day started with a visit from one of my favorite new Buffalonians, Sydney Brown from the Western NY Black Chamber of Commerce. We had lunch and caught up on her forthcoming application for the Buffalo Main Street Initiative. Then she settled in to our couch with a cup of tea to do some work, while we prepped the office for the party. I was so glad to have her.

Sydney feeling right at home with us

Highlights

At 3PM, our guests started arriving. It was exciting to see so many of our clients and partners and friends in one place. We are lucky to work with so many great people.

Here are some of my personal highlights from the day:

Annie's baby, Tate, came and wooed all the ladies. Me included.

Fred Frank from Parsons Brinckerhoff and Kelly Thompson from Bergmann Associates surprised us by coming all the way from Buffalo! So with Sydney, that was people from the far away country of Buffalo. Yay.

Kevin Kelly from the City of Rochester rolled in wearing a reflective vest and hung his bike on our rack in the office. In January. That's hard core, right?

Rich Perrin arrived as a new TyLin employee, with Tara Boggio and Tom Castelein. It was great to talk with him about his transition into consulting after so many years serving as the Executive Director of the Genesee Transportation Council. I know that he will do great things.

Sue Piotrowski, from Bad Fish Consulting, came. In 2014, she counseled me into taking a big leap. I hired new staff and started construction on the church. So scary at the time, but a necessary risk to get to where we are today. She walked in on Thursday with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and we had a nice hug. :)

Theo Finn from Edgemere Development brought her four year old daughter, Lucia, who schmoozed with the best of them while sampling all the food. Sushi, chicken, dumplings, maybe even edamame. She got her fair share of sweets too.

Theo, Lucia, Rachel Clar (Clar Development), Jason Haremza (City of Rochester) and his partner Matt Witten stayed for a bit at the end of the night. We sat around and pounded sushi and carrot cake bites and made each other laugh. Great people.

​It was a lovely event. I could go on and on. But more photos...

Nancy Gillette from Watts and Lorenzo Rotoli from Fisher Associates

A few of our favorite partners. John Steinmetz from Steinmetz Planning Group, Chris Lopez from Plan Architecture, Glenn Kellogg from Urban Advisors, and Molly Gaudioso from Steinmetz Planning Group

Old friends. Good friends. Mark Johns from Bergmann and Casey Kurz from DDS Companies

MVP Goes to Madame Chef

We had the best food! If you know me at all, you know I'm never interested in cooking. Bridgette and Steve from Madame Chef took care of everything, and it was all delicious. I admittedly was occupied during the event, but Andre and I crushed the leftover pork dumplings and chicken satay on Friday. So good.

​We will definitely have another open house, and they will definitely cater it.

The Swillburger/Playhouse opened at 4PM on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015. This wonderful, amazing, momentous occasion marked the completion of the redevelopment of 820 South Clinton Avenue, Rochester, NY. The building is home to three great businesses: Highland Planning, This Good World, and now, our friendly neighborhood barcade and burger joint.

Just to recap. I'm a partner on the redevelopment of the building with one of the Swillburger/Playhouse owners, Jeff Ching. The building owner, John Trickey, helped us reconstruct the building to our specification and gave us an option to buy the building. More on that story here and here.

If you've talked to me in the past two years, you know that the project took... two years. Two. Full. Years. That was a long time. We found some unanticipated issues in the building that had to be addressed. Not surprising, since it was built in 1890. We did a couple things wrong and had to do them twice. Yep. Nonetheless, it's finished. And the end result is better than I imagined. And I know more about commercial development than I did two years ago, which was sort of the whole point.

This project is a first step into commercial development for me. South Clinton Avenue is a commercial district that we've been working on revitalizing for five years as Street Manager. It is in need of a pick-me-up. This opportunity came together, and the result, in my opinion, is a new landmark for the city.

So. In spite of the time, expense and brain damage, I'm proud of this project. Maybe you can tell.

Here is some of the social media documentation of the food and the buzzworthy first few days of activity. If you look close at the last photo, you'll see my family eating our burgers, fries and milkshakes on opening day.

Come eat and play Gauntlet with me soon, okay?? We keep a bowl of arcade tokens in the reception area of the office.

In our capacity as Street Manager for the City of Rochester, we've organized a host of events with the Cinema over the years. The theater staff is always interested in connecting with the community, the theater cat always makes a short appearance (#personalhighlight), and event participants are always delighted to support the City's oldest neighborhood theater. Thanks to all who came!

Our second annual South Clinton Goes Batty event was bigger and better than last year. The purpose of the event is to highlight our businesses and provide fun and entertainment for families. It's a costume optional event, which makes for a pretty eclectic looking crowd.

This year, we set up home base in the middle of the commercial district at 846 South Clinton Avenue. We had a stage and entertainment by Nativity Prep students and dancers from MGOS.

Mayor Lovely Warren joined us and introduced the #shoptheROC, a new city-wide campaign aimed at supporting local businesses. The program has incentives for Rochester businesses including design services, printing and social media outreach. Mayor Warren encouraged businesses to sign up for the program and shoppers to post photos of city businesses using #ShopTheROC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

After visiting with the mayor, we ate pizza (donated by Salvatore's), cider and donuts (donated by the South Clinton Merchants Association), and apples (donated by the Good Food Collective).Then we checked out our friends playing Jenga with Rec on the Move. My kids hit the bounce house, and climbed through the fire safety trailer. They each took a pony ride. And we also visited with our favorite Rochester Police Department horse, Comet.

Children under 12 who visited each of the six businesses received free admission to the Cinema Theater's 4:00PM showing of Hotel Transylvania. My son lost his passport twice, but we ended up finding it in time for the movie. And that was a great way to end the day.

Big big big kudos to Jen Topa, who organized the event again on a shoestring budget. And to Bill Schwappacher, from the City of Rochester Communications Bureau, who invited the Mayor, designed our poster and the passports, helped with social media and press releases. Here they are enjoying themselves.

Do you know about Wall\Therapy? It's a Rochester-based public community-level intervention that "uses mural art as a vehicle to address our collective need for inspiration." The project began by Dr. Ian Wilson in 2012. Every year, artists from around the world come to the City of Rochester on the same week to install murals. In it's fourth year, the program has contributed a great deal art and inspiration to our city, and it has also sparked a public dialogue about art and community.

In April, Lisa Kribs-Lapierre from This Good World proposed the idea of a mural for our new home at 820 South Clinton Avenue. We called our friend Erich from Wall\Therapy, he came to check out the building, and and it all came together quickly. He proposed work by an amazing artist named Handiedanwho is based in Amsterdam. She looked at photos of the building, sent us a concept, we loved it, and before we knew it, she was here in Rochester getting to work.

The end result is better than we could have imagined. It's a wheat paste mural called "Bollywood Sugar." It's a powerful piece that helps to achieve the vision we have for our revitalized building as a new landmark for the city.

Many many many thanks to Handiedan, Wall\Therapy, Urban Nation Berlin, and all the people who came by to offer their support and encouragement over the last few weeks. We know we will enjoy this piece for many years to come.

On Saturday, May 2, 2015, Highland Planning took part in another successful Clean Sweep event. For the past few years, as part of our Street Manager contracts with the City of Rochester, we have joined ranks with our fellow citizens to plant flowers and pick up trash along the commercial corridors where we work. The City of Rochester provides tools, trash bags, water, moral support, lunch, and a tickets to a Red Wings game if you're up for it.

DIDN'T WE JUST DO THIS?

It can be hard to take time out on a Saturday amidst kids sports, errands, and the very serious level of relaxing that we like to happen on weekends. It's also hard to get excited about bending over and picking up cigarette butts and trash for several hours, knowing that someone will inevitably toss something to the curb five minutes later. But the weird thing is, once you get out there, Clean Sweep is a contagiously 'feel good' experience that never disappoints. Mostly because of the people you're working with, but also because, when you finish, the street is visibly renewed.

This year, we were lucky to have sunshine and an amazing number of volunteers from the surrounding neighborhoods. We also had a number of families with young children. Here's the 2015 South Clinton Avenue Clean Sweep crew. Please note there are four Topas in the first photo.

The second photo is Sarah Piciulo, our South Clinton Merchants Association President. She spent the week organizing and buying all the flowers for the planters. Thanks Sarah!

FLOWERS AND GRIT

Since Clean Sweep, the yellow and purple flowers in the planters seem to pop as we drive down the street. Our eyes also are trained to pick out cigarette butts and trash. We find ourselves picking up trash and dead heading flowers and watering the planters. We have less tolerance for graffiti and start strategizing about where a Wall\Therapy installation might work. (Hmmm. Maybe *our* building….)

We also keep remembering the stories from the day. Jen's group had a boy named Patrick, who wanted to keep a dead bird that he and his family found while cleaning. That's cute, and also sad and gross. She also had a group of missionaries who didn't know the area, but ended up helping a woman move furniture into her apartment.

South Clinton Avenue is eclectic and gritty, but it's also friendly and inviting. We have come to know all of the merchants, many of the property owners, and quite a few of the neighbors from the adjacent residential neighborhoods. It's one of our favorite corners of the city. We have good reason to like it the way it is, and at the same time we remain serious about making it better every day. What are my good reasons? Here are two of them.

It's April, the snow has melted, and we are settled into our new office at 820 South Clinton Avenue. I need to share photos before I spill coffee on the carpet!

DESIGNED BY COMMITTEE, BUILT BY FRIENDS

If you think I could design an office that looks good by myself, you are wrong. The office layout and architectural services were provided by Staach. Staach also built our desks and conference tables. The furniture selection and color scheme was designed by the talented Whitney Tesler from The White Workshop. We commissioned a mural by St. Monci.

Many thanks to our construction crew and finishers: Mike, John, Steve, Carl, Ted, Jay, Wayne, Dave, Cory, Peanut, and Hot Sauce. I'm also grateful to my friends Justin, Lyjha, Davin, Jeff, and my husband Christian for putting together the Ikea kitchenettes over the course of six or seven nights. The instructions have no words, only images. Let's just say there were some low moments during that process.

NEW COMMUNITY

Downstairs, This Good World has moved into the first floor office space. Seeing Lisa Kribs-LaPierre, Gavin Thomas and Lisa's dog Lola every day makes the building feel like a community, even though it's still only half occupied. The Playhouse/Swillburger space is still under construction, but we expect them to start slinging burgers and video games in June.

In summary, yay for historic building adaptive reuse! Yay for real desks and chairs! Yay for sunlight and bowling lockers in our work space! Yay for biking to work! Please come visit us soon.